Since the beginning of time we have fought. Over land, over resources, over love, over grudges, over family, over power, over influence, over all kinds of things we have killed one another and allowed death to be an accepted, necessary part of our footprint on this earth.

Often, we do this in the name of God.

God told me to invade that country.
God would be proud we are spreading His message.
God is on our side.

“Those who live by the sword will die by the sword”

The sword kills men
The gun kills more men
The bomb kills innocent men, women and children
The hydrogen bomb kills millions of innocents.

God made the world.
God made the plants.
God made the animals.
God made man first (obviously)
God made woman second
The woman messed up first (obviously)
The man messed up second
God killed everyone off because they were evil
God promised not to do it again
People worshipped all kinds of Gods
The Gods were angry
The God demanded sacrifices
This God spoke to Abraham
This God wasn’t angry
This God got angry (a bit)
This God demanded less sacrifices,
but still demanded them.
God took his people out of slavery.
God looked after Israel
at the expense of everyone else.
God doesn’t mind genocide.
God told everyone how to live.
No-one listened.
God got angry.
Everyone listened (A bit)
then went back to normal life.
God got angry.
God sent Israel into exile.
And brought them back,
and then into exile again.

Then God suddenly had a change of heart and
decided in advance to murder his own son
to show us all that he loves us
(because, apparently, he hates himself?)
So now if we don’t believe him
one day he’s going to get angry
again
and we’ve had it.
forever.

(but our choice was predestined anyway)
OR

God made the world
God wanted people to love him
People thought they had to please God
God showed Abraham their behaviour was excessive
God said “don’t sacrifice, everything”
God said “I don’t desire your sacrifices”
God said “Love your neighbour, it’s that simple”
But no-one listened.
So God made things clear
God made the biggest sacrifice of all
And showed the religious people there was nothing
behind the curtain.
Nothing at all.
God was in all things
through all things
he made all things
and loves all things
and all people.
He loves me,
he loves you,
he loves the one you hate.
And one day,
we’ll all get it.
And it will be beautiful.
OR
Your own story.

Over the next 25 days I’m going to be posting a few short, simple posts. Hope you enjoy!

——

Caesar was the Son of God. The Good News is that Caesar Saves. You only have to pledge allegiance to Caesar with a public declaration and you can be Saved!

That was the good news then.

You can provide for yourself! Then you can buy what you need. Or, even better, what you want! Just sign on the dotted line, and we’ll give you the money you need to buy what you want, as long as you do what we say!

That’s the good news now.

Both sound familiar, right?

The second one may well be painfully true. Even if you enjoy your job, doesn’t it ring a bell on some level? This is the way we are told to live. This is the way we do live. This is the way the world lives.

But it is not good news! There is exploitation, poverty, deception and injustice all interwoven into this “good news”. Sadly, it’s not news, and it isn’t good, either.

The first paragraph will sound familiar because of the language. Jesus wasn’t as original as you might have thought – at least, not in the way that he spoke.

Back then Caesar made promises he couldn’t keep. That wasn’t good news, either.